


Unbound

by MaryPSue



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Transcendence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-25
Updated: 2015-02-25
Packaged: 2018-03-15 01:20:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3432779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaryPSue/pseuds/MaryPSue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mabel trusts her brother.</p><p>This might not be her brightest idea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unbound

**Author's Note:**

> First thing I ever wrote for the [Transcendence AU](http://transcendence-au.tumblr.com). I figured it should go here, because why not.

Mabel’s sitting in the middle of several heaps of clothing tossed into and over an open suitcase, trying to decide whether to pack her day-glo green sweater with the fluffy white cat and the slogan “Are You Kitten Me?” or the pink-and-purple striped sweater with the pattern of bright yellow shooting stars, when her brother falls unceremoniously out of thin air face-down into a pile of clothes right in front of her. Mabel watches for a moment to see if he’ll move, and when he doesn’t, she reaches out to give his shoulder a shake.

The instant her hand makes contact with his shoulder, Dipper groans and rolls over, bobbing up out of the pile of clothes to hover in midair. Mabel frowns at the way random patches of inky black, patterned with sizzling gold lines, appear and dissolve over her twin’s small form. That’s weird, too - he hardly ever appears as a twelve-year-old these days, preferring to look the same age as she is. “Are you all right?”

Dipper looks up, one of his eyes flickering solid gold as he does, both it and the gold pupil of his other eye flaring and spitting sparks. The tiny seed of worry that had planted itself in the pit of Mabel’s stomach at the sight of him blooms quickly into full-blown fear at the expression on his face.

His voice is shaky, his reassuring smile weak, vanishing in seconds. “I - this last summons -” He drops, suddenly, nearly a foot in the air. Mabel starts forward, but he catches himself and offers her another weak smile, one that cracks at the edges, spreading out jagged and golden and far wider than any human face should be able to hold, before worry overtakes it. “They - they knew about - the cult of Sir Dipping Sauce.” His third eye blinks open, roves around the room and fixes itself on Mabel, and for the first time she can remember since Dipper first manifested in front of their parents, he claps both hands over it, almost like he’s trying to hide it. Or keep it from seeing something, Mabel thinks, and then pushes the thought aside with a nervous laugh. “Said it was an _abomination_ and they were going to - to _h-help_ me -“

When he doesn’t finish the sentence, Mabel shuffles on her knees through the swamp of clothes until she can reach out and wrap her arms around him. Usually, Dipper loves her hugs, so when he goes stiff and still instead of throwing his arms around her in turn and clinging like a limpet, Mabel knows that something is deeply, _seriously_ wrong.

"What did they do?" she asks, and if she sounds a little murderous, well, her brother the demon will probably understand.

His laugh is just a little too high, a little too edgy. “I don’t - exactly know - there was an incantation, something about breaking chains, _freeing_ \- and now all of a sudden my powers are going haywire! It’s like - like when I first changed. I think the only reason I haven’t caused any major disasters is because I’m so tired.” The last sentence slowly trails off towards the end, and the next thing Dipper says has lost the edge of panic that had cut short so many of his sentences, gained a jaunty sort of rhythm that, for reasons Mabel can’t quite explain, makes the hair along the back of her neck stand on end. “Or maybe I’m so tired because I haven’t caused any major disasters. Hm. When was the last time I dried up that lake? Or made it rain frogs? Or…fire? Now _that_ would be _hilarious_.”

"Dipper?" Mabel asks, quietly, but her brother just continues talking, in that eerie voice that’s his, but _not_.

"Things are getting entirely too predictable around here, don’t you think, Shooting Star?"

"Dipper!"

"What?" Dipper pulls back, his eyes (both back to their usual black and gold, Mabel notices) going wide when he sees the look on Mabel’s face. "Oh no, what did I - Mabel, I’m so sorry -"

"Hey, it’s okay, bro-bro," Mabel says, with a gesture that’s meant to show just how little she’s bothered. In fact, she’s bothered, she’s _really_ bothered, but it’s not going to do either her or Dipper any good to show it right now. “You said you were pretty tired, you’re not feeling like yourself.” That’s an understatement. “Hey, I need all this stuff packed, you need some energy… How about a deal?”

She knows as soon as the words leave her mouth that this was a very stupid idea.

"Deal," Dipper says, and his eyes are very bright and his smile is very wide and the blue fire that crawls up Mabel’s arm when he takes the hand she’s offered _burns_ -

….

Henry’s just returning from loading his suitcase into the car when he hears Mabel scream from upstairs, one high shriek that’s quickly cut off. He drops the car keys on the counter and, leaving the door hanging open, sprints up the stairs.

He doesn’t know what he was expecting to find when he arrives, out of breath, at the door to her room, but he’s fairly sure that his fiance lying on the floor, pale as death, next to a perfectly packed suitcase, with her demon twin brother floating lazily on his stomach in midair above her, definitely wasn’t it.

"Dipper?" Henry asks, and said demon twin brother turns flashing eyes towards him. Henry swallows hard, suddenly feeling much like ants must when a gigantic magnifying glass descends overhead, in the seconds before focused sunlight burns them alive. "What’s the matter? What happened to Mabel?"

Dipper’s smile is more unpleasant than usual and full of sharp teeth. “She’s resting. Guess I wore her out.”

"Wore her - what did you _do_?” Abandoning all thought of self-preservation, Henry hurries over to Mabel, kneeling beside her, listening desperately for breathing as his fingers search her wrist for a pulse. For a moment, he thinks he won’t find one, before he feels the faintest flutter under his fingertips. A rush of relief pours over him, and he gently shakes Mabel’s shoulder, leaning down to speak directly into her ear. “Mabel, Mabel, can you hear me?”

"She can’t," Dipper interjects, suddenly _right there_ in front of Henry, and Henry yelps and stumbles backwards, falling on his backside. He’s only frightened for a second, though, before the demon bursts into cackling laughter and anger takes the place of fear.

"You - she _trusted_ you!” Henry pushes himself to his feet, notices dimly that the finger he points accusingly at Dipper is shaking with rage. “Put her back, _right now_ , or -” He stops, unable to think of anything suitably awful to threaten the demon with.

Dipper, however, seems unmoved. “Oh, all right,” he sighs, with a darting look that tells Henry, clearly, that this is all an act. This is all a farce, and Dipper’s the only one laughing. “But you know…it’s going to cost you.”

The grin he turns to Henry is too wide and crackles with power and menace.

"Want to make a deal?"


End file.
